Tag Archives: cats

between cancer and cats…

05 Wednesday Sep 2012

Posted by in animals & pets, cancer, cats, friends, home, hope, hospitals

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. . . and cats with cancer, it’s been quite an exhausting week.

Since Azar’s tumour explosion last Friday he seems to be slowly on the mend, though he gets “moments” when I can see he is in distress and probably in serious pain, and I don’t know what to do other than stroke him and talk a mile a minute in my softest lovey-dovey voice… he really does like to hear me talk. Anyhow, he and I are just taking things one day at a time (as if there were any other way).

You may recall that last Friday was, along with the exploding tumour incident, also the day for my monthly chemo port cleaning, which I almost put off until today (when I had an oncology appointment) so I didn’t have to make two hospital taxi trips in one week. But I decided not to leave things to chance (would be ironic for me to die of a blood clot after all this) and did a record there-and-back-again in less than an hour, basically taking taxis from door-to-door, so I wouldn’t have to leave Azar for long. I usually walk up to the main road and save myself a couple of euros in each direction. But I digress…

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lumpy

01 Saturday Sep 2012

Posted by in animals & pets, cats, death & dying, health & happiness

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[click to enlarge]

What’s so weird is that on Thursday afternoon (the day before the tumour burst!) I’d sent these two photos by email to Sledpress to show her just how damn BIG the thing had become, and express my worry about it. Then yesterday – blam! You can read the gory details here.

Since then Azar has been looking much perkier. The best thing being that he has regained the use of his one good front leg and can comfortably sit up again and even walk around much easier. I’m not exaggerating when I say the lump was the size of a baseball – poor Azar couldn’t even straighten out his leg anymore and was in a permanent crouched position. The reason he was sometimes peeing on the sofa was that, once there, he didn’t want to have to jump down to get to the box because it hurt too much. I had started carrying him to the box at regular intervals but couldn’t always be there, but when he was left overnight this week he had no problem as he stayed on a blanket under my bed with the litter box nearby.

The wound still looks messy, but Azar is a good healer. And he so intensely loves being alive. I am starting to wonder if his tumour is even malignant, because something that big should have killed him by now if it was. Could it just be a nasty cyst? Anyhow, he has been snatched back from the brink and is now happily snoozing away. I’ll be taking him to the vet’s this morning because I think the wound needs to be properly dressed and he may need to take antibiotics to stave off infection.

One thing is for sure. If this had happened while I was away in Córdoba, or even just away for the afternoon, he probably would have died. He was in such a panic and hyperventilating that without me there to clean him up and calm him down I don’t think he’d still be here. So lucky! But hey, that’s his name. Azar.

azar waited for me!

29 Wednesday Aug 2012

Posted by in 20th anniversary, animals & pets, cats, hope

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I wouldn’t say he was pleased about me “abandonating!” him for a whole 34 hours, but he seemed very pleased when he knew I was home again. And me? I was over the moon. Thing is, I know this cat is clever enough to keep himself fed and watered because I know he really wants to live. I just had to trust that he’d wait for me. And he did.

Córdoba was wonderful, the whole experience was so full of STUFF that it’s going to take days to process it all and get photos edited and articles written. But for now I am happily sitting here at home with this gorgeous darling next to me on the sofa. Peter is out doing a tapas tour. I knew I couldn’t come back from Córdoba and then turn around and leave Azar again an hour later. So Peter is out there bringing in a bit of bacon and I am here answering a monster pile of work emails and sorting through photos. With this beautiful boy beside me. Life is good…

breakfast in bed

14 Tuesday Aug 2012

Posted by in animals & pets, cancer, cats, health & happiness, home

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Here’s Azar being served a nice drink of water from his favourite glass after having had breakfast in bed this morning. He’s actually perked up the past few days. I was missing him so much that I began a harrowing afternoon routine of getting him out from under my bed, which always provokes shrieks of terror and total panic on his part (why???). But as soon as I manage to scoop him up in my arms he goes all calm and then I give him a gentle snibble on the sofa, and after that he happily settles down there for the rest of the day. If I don’t do that he’ll just stay under the bed. Go figure.

Anyhow, that’s the new routine. He still sleeps with me, and enjoys his breakfast in bed, but as soon as I get up he hides under the bed and stays there until I fish him out at lunchtime (no point in going through all that before I can spend some time with him on the sofa). His appetite has also picked up and so he definitely is still enjoying a decent quality of life.

I’ve postponed my trip to Málaga as I was planning to be there for about three nights and, even with Peter at home with Azar, it just felt like too long to be away right now. But both Peter and I have been invited to stay one night at a hotel in Córdoba and I really don’t know what to do. When I know I’ll be out for the whole day I set Azar up in my room with plenty of food and water and his own litter box, because he doesn’t seem to want to be around the other cats these days, and he seems quite fine with that. But to leave him overnight? It’s a dilemma because this would be such a good opportunity for Peter to do more research for his Córdoba day trips and for me to get some more material for my travel writing “portfolio”, and I don’t think I can ask the hotel to postpone the free room offer indefinitely. I don’t mind putting off personal trips, but this is actually a business trip. What should I do?